LOST

Saturday, we discovered something about our eldest child....He has no sense of direction.  I mean none, natta, zippo, zilch, zero.

The prior week, he decided to bike to his friends house.  Sometimes giving rides are a pain, so he decided he would ride his bike there.  So on his way home from their house last week, we reviewed the route in the van.  I showed him how we simply stayed on the same road all the way home.  The road has 2 'S curves' and goes from pavement to gravel.  

3 days later, he decided to bike to his house to crash for the night.  He packed his backpack for the night.  We reminded him to fill a water bottle with water.  We reviewed the route with him verbally.  Phillip would be waiting outside his house, so Devon wouldn't miss the house and ride by.  It is an 8 mile ride.   Devon is about a month away from being 15.  

So at 5:15 Devon took off.  Greg and I were meeting 2 other couples at a local winery which is about 3 miles from our house.  We haven't gone yet, but were excited to finally eat there and do a wine tasting.  The night was to culminate in a bonfire at our house.

At 6:00, Phillip's parents arrived at our house looking for Devon.  That's strange, he had ridden his bike over.  After 30 minutes, they decided to meet him on the road and pick him up.  Phillip was anxious to hang out.  But they made the trek to our house and didn't see Devon.  Well, they decided to drive back a different route and watch more carefully.  Maybe they just missed seeing him.

Greg and I continued our plans to the local winery.  In the meantime, Darrin called and said that he still couldn't find Devon.  We decided that he took a wrong turn, I would go look for him and join Greg in 15 minutes after I located him.  I drove down several roads and didn't find him.  Darrin drove down several roads and didn't find him.  It is now 6:45 and Devon is missing still.  So I called 911.  The county dispatched a squad to come help look.  We live on a county line, so the other county had a squad looking too.  I picked up Greg, we got another vehicle and we all started looking.  2 more squads joined the search.  We now have 4 squads and 3 parents driving the many twisting gravel roads between our house and his friend's house.  

I was positive that with his ADHD he took a wrong turn and was just riding along.  Devon hit his growth spurt last year, and has been running a couple miles a day, so if he keeps pedaling in the wrong direction, he can cover some serious ground.  I didn't think he would cross a major highway, but I also didn't think he would get lost staying on the same road.  3 hours had now gone by and I was starting to worry.  It would be dark.  He hadn't called us yet.  Maybe something worse had happened.

Finally, Phillip's mom called and her friend who lives on the route called.  Her kids had found Devon and told him to stay put.  She told me where to find him.  I called Greg and frantically drove to where he was supposed to be.  Greg called the police to end the search.  I picked him up and brought him home.  Scary and eventful.

He had turned off the pavement, back onto gravel and went straight, rather than following the 'S curve'.  He rode like mad for 8 miles, then backtracked, got back on the correct rode, but rode off it onto gravel again on the next part of the 'S curve'.  He continued to ride random roads, until finally giving up and that's when the kids found him.  Riding randomly on a gravel road, exhausted and lost with no plan.

After hugging him, I asked why he didn't call us.  It hadn't occurred to him to go to a house and call us. I worry about how he handles a crisis.  He was hopelessly lost and scared and really didn't think to call.  Oh boy.  Plus he had no idea where he was when he was only 2 miles from our house.  As a friend pointed out yesterday,  this is one of many lessons where he will learn what to do in a crisis.  **I hope**

Our friends joined us for a bonfire after the ordeal, bringing my favorite wine from the winery.  Maybe next time we'll get to actually go try some new wines.